About

In the beginning…

The Southside Six was originally conceived during a chat about where we could go running in the south side of Glasgow. We found that we knew plenty of routes which took us along the leafy suburban roads but seldom did we venture into the many parks dotted around the south side. That got us thinking about how many parks we could run through in a single manageable run and so the concept for The Southside Six was born.

A few trial runs later and a rough route was decided…

The first event…

On October 31st 2010 six friends decided to try out the route. Allan, Derek, Emma, Fiona, Nick and Sandy set off from the starting point at the Flagpole in Queen’s Park under the careful watch of the stand-in race official Laura and the only spectator on the day Craig.

From Queen’s Park we headed South East through Battlefield to King’s Park before setting out for Linn Park. Out of Linn Park we headed up to Clarkston and further West, finding our way to Rouken Glen. From there we headed down the hill towards Thornliebank and then into Pollok Park, Glasgow’s largest green space. We left Pollok Park past the riding stables and ran over the motorway (bridge!) and into Bellahouston Park where we headed for the far end near to the sports centre. Up the steps to the monument we then headed down the hill towards Nithsdale Road and the final leg of the journey back to Queen’s Park.

We finished together in 2h55 having run 26km… the route had been a great success! Goodie bags were handed out including hand-printed T-shirts before we sauntered off to the Clockwork Beer Co. for some well earned food and drink!

Growing arms and legs…

Later on, talking to other running friends, we found out that many of them would have liked to have joined us on the day and made us promise to let them know when we were running it again. That got us to thinking about making it an annual event… and as these things often do it grew and grew and grew and we found ourselves organising an official event on the Scottish Athletics running calendar!

Onwards to 2011…

We learned a lot organising the first official event in 2011:

Who to approach for assistance. Where to get T-shirts printed. How to create a budget and stick to it. How to entice people to enter. Who makes the best cakes!

We also learned that it can be hard work, especially packing all the goodie bags, putting up all the signs, moving over a tonne of bottled water!

But… We also learned that there is nothing like the buzz of seeing over 200 people running our route and having good fun doing it!

Our ethos…

The emphasis of The Southside Six is for people who enjoy running to get out into the green spaces which are all around the south side of Glasgow. While we have based the route around six of the largest, there are many others to enjoy. The Southside Six is a race and there will be prizes for the fastest times however it’s as much about having a good time exploring.